Guns are on Congress' mind after Colorado shooting, but action is unlikely

View full sizeThe Associated PressSen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, to criticize the sale of high-capacity magazines for assault rifles that are sold to the public. A previous federal ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines was allowed to lapse in 2004. Congress will not revisit the issue, critics say.

WASHINGTON – Like the rest of the nation struggling to process the horrific theater shooting in Colorado that left 71 people dead and wounded, guns are on the minds of many members of Congress, including those from Oregon.

But having a thought is as far as it’s likely to go, as leaders in both the House and Senate say there’s almost no chance the controversial topic of guns will get legislative attention anytime soon, especially in a tough election year.

“I do think there ought to be a conversation for ideas for keeping legal weapons out of the hands of people who are mentally unstable,” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said in an interview Tuesday. “I think that conversation will start.”

But Wyden was careful to stress that the focus should be on strengthening the system for identifying “mentally unstable” people and ensuring that they cannot purchase weapons.

That's different than the larger discussion some want on such questions as renewing a ban on the sale of assault weapons, which Congress allowed to lapse in 2004. Nor does it focus on limiting the sale of large magazines like the 100-round version that alleged shooter James Holmes used during an attack on the packed theater in Aurora, Colo. Or the ability of people to purchase thousands of rounds of ammunition virtually without question.

“With each horrific tragedy this comes front and center; how you go about ensuring the safety of families. There are two parts to this that especially important. What are the ways you can best lay out a strategy for best identifying as soon as possible people who appear to be unstable?” Wyden said.

“We’ve had whole series of events over time; it’s not like this is the only one that’s happened in the last five years. It’s not a new conversation to the nation,” he said Tuesday in an interview.

“I think that people don’t have any easy answers,” Merkley said. “When you have a sole operator like this, it’s very hard to stop them.”

The fact that neither the House or Senate will act and neither President Barack Obama nor Republican Mitt Romney are calling for tougher action hasn’t quieted everyone. And it's triggered renewed attacks on the National Rifle Association by some lawmakers. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., for example, called the NRA a "bully" on Monday, blaming the powerful gun lobby as the major impediment to even modest reform.

“Worse than our inaction however, is the fact that we continue to allow political bullies to intimidate us from even researching the facts and studying the causes of, and potential solutions to, gun violence. There has never been a threat in this country that sportsmen will not be able to hunt or target shoot, yet the gun lobby has so successfully pushed this narrative that there is virtually no gun control at all in the United States,” Blumenauer wrote Monday on his website. He wrote a similar column for Huffington Post and appeared on MSNBC in which he said Congress has "given up" on gun control.

The comments closely mirrored a speech he made the same day on the House floor.

“This political intimidation, combined with a lack of willpower in Congress, has made it impossible to even close the gun show loophole where individuals can purchase unlimited amount of guns without a reasonable background check,” he wrote. “The NRA is also at work to make sure that even people suspected to be terrorists and are on the ‘no-fly’ list can purchase guns.”

The Senate wasn't totally immune from tough talk either.

“A question arises. What do we do besides weep for these people? What do we do besides feel sad? … That’s going to be the test of the general character of this body and others in government,” Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., asked from the Senate floor on Monday.

He followed that with another floor speech Tuesday in which he admonished Congress for not seriously considering restrictions on the sale of large magazines and closing loopholes that allegedly allowed Holmes to purchase thousands of rounds of ammunition with nothing more than a credit card and mailing address.

“Too many times Congress has sat back, cowered before the gun lobby and done nothing to prevent these things from happening,” Lautenberg said Tuesday. “We can’t wait any longer. … There are too many bullets, too many deaths; too many funerals but not enough people are saying, ‘Stop it. Do you your job. Protect my family, protect my kids; protect my parents.”

The White House so far has avoided direct confrontation on the issues.

White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday that President Barack Obama believes the government should protect the Constitutional right of people to own guns while also ensuring that weapons do not fall "into the hands of individuals who should not, by existing law, obtain those weapons."

"The president's view is that we can take steps to keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them under existing law," Carney said. "And that's his focus right now."

"I agree," House Speaker John Boehner told reporters Tuesday, citing Carney's statement for why the House will not consider gun control legislation.

That statement came two days after New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who’s been fighting aggressively for tougher gun control laws, urged the President and Romney to take strong action.

“You know, soothing words are nice, but maybe it’s time that the two people who want to be President of the United States stand up and tell us what they are going to do about it, because this is obviously a problem across the country,” he said in an interview with WOR radio.

“And instead of the two people – President Obama and Governor Romney – talking in broad things about they want to make the world a better place, okay, tell us how,” Bloomberg said. “ … No matter where you stand on the Second Amendment, no matter where you stand on guns, we have a right to hear from both of them concretely, not just in generalities – specifically what are they going to do about guns?"

The response this time highlights the way guns have largely drifted off Congress' agenda. In 1999, Democrats muscled through a limited gun control measure only weeks after the shooting at Columbine High School. They succeeded even though they were in the minority at the time. The bill required background checks for weapons sold at gun shows.

This time, there are words but no action. Even from the most vigorous backers of gun control legislation. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., championed the successful legislation in 1994 banning the sales of assault weapons. The AR-15 semi-automatic rifle used in the Aurora shooting would have been banned if the law was still in effect.

Today, Schumer is resigned to in-action. The political path cannot be navigated, he told reporters Tuesday, blaming Republicans. The best advice he could offer shifted the focus from Congress to a "silent majority" of citizens. They need to energize and mobilize and demand action, he said.

Polls, however, suggest support is already there. One poll, released Tuesday by Mayors Against Illegal Guns and conducted by Republican pollster Frank Luntz, found that 74 percent of NRA members and 87 percent of non-NRA gun owners support requiring criminal background checks of anyone purchasing a gun. It also found that 75 percent of NRA members believe concealed carry permits should only be granted to applicants who have not committed any violent misdemeanors, including assault.

Those results are based on a survey conducted in May, long before the Aurora shooting.

"The poll also dispels the myth among many Washington pundits that there is a lack of public support for common-sense measures that would help keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people and keep Americans safe," the group said, not so silently, on its website.

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